ANNA GEISLER

The Rusty Toque | Issue 10 | Poetry | June 30, 2016

STEADY FLASHES


Even your mother blinks

her eyes open
when crying;

makes sure
you are watching

*
red, a fire


hydrant breaks

pissing small squirts


the limbless dog


slogs by

*
at the table, you thought
 
if you had a mouth
full of emeralds


you couldn’t eat.

FAITH


It’s the thing I can’t talk about      
when I close my eyes
 
It collects in my mouth
like snowmelt

HARD TRUTH


Even when we fought

off the enemy, and later

cauterized its wounds

with gunpowder,
 
our love shut its eyes

and refused

to keep living. It was

wiser than either of us

could ever be.

It said,

“I am a martyr

and martyrs die.”
ANNA GEISLER is a Toronto-based poet and an MFA candidate at the Pacific University of Oregon. She was born in Konin, Poland.